1XSET(1) General Commands Manual XSET(1)
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6 xset - user preference utility for X
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9 xset [-display display] [-b] [b on/off] [b [volume [pitch [duration]]]
10 [[-]bc] [-c] [c on/off] [c [volume]] [[+-]dpms] [dpms standby [ suspend
11 [ off]]] [dpms force standby/suspend/off/on] [[-+]fp[-+=]
12 path[,path[,...]]] [fp default] [fp rehash] [[-]led [integer]] [led
13 on/off] [m[ouse] [accel_mult[/accel_div] [threshold]]] [m[ouse]
14 default] [p pixel color] [[-]r [keycode]] [r on/off] [r rate delay
15 [rate]] [s [length [period]]] [s blank/noblank] [s expose/noexpose] [s
16 on/off] [s default] [s activate] [s reset] [q]
17
19 This program is used to set various user preference options of the dis‐
20 play.
21
23 -display display
24 This option specifies the server to use; see X(7).
25 b The b option controls bell volume, pitch and duration. This
27 option accepts up to three numerical parameters, a preceding
28 dash(-), or a 'on/off' flag. If no parameters are given, or
29 the 'on' flag is used, the system defaults will be used. If
30 the dash or 'off' are given, the bell will be turned off. If
31 only one numerical parameter is given, the bell volume will be
32 set to that value, as a percentage of its maximum. Likewise,
33 the second numerical parameter specifies the bell pitch, in
34 hertz, and the third numerical parameter specifies the duration
35 in milliseconds. Note that not all hardware can vary the bell
36 characteristics. The X server will set the characteristics of
37 the bell as closely as it can to the user's specifications.
38 bc The bc option controls bug compatibility mode in the server, if
40 possible; a preceding dash(-) disables the mode, otherwise the
41 mode is enabled. Various pre-R4 clients pass illegal values in
42 some protocol requests, and pre-R4 servers did not correctly
43 generate errors in these cases. Such clients, when run against
44 an R4 server, will terminate abnormally or otherwise fail to
45 operate correctly. Bug compatibility mode explicitly reintro‐
46 duces certain bugs into the X server, so that many such clients
47 can still be run. This mode should be used with care; new
48 application development should be done with this mode disabled.
49 The server must support the MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD protocol
50 extension in order for this option to work.
51 c The c option controls key click. This option can take an
53 optional value, a preceding dash(-), or an 'on/off' flag. If
54 no parameter or the 'on' flag is given, the system defaults
55 will be used. If the dash or 'off' flag is used, keyclick will
56 be disabled. If a value from 0 to 100 is given, it is used to
57 indicate volume, as a percentage of the maximum. The X server
58 will set the volume to the nearest value that the hardware can
59 support.
60 -dpms The -dpms option disables DPMS (Energy Star) features.
62 +dpms The +dpms option enables DPMS (Energy Star) features.
64 dpms flags...
66 The dpms option allows the DPMS (Energy Star) parameters to be
67 set. The option can take up to three numerical values, or the
68 `force' flag followed by a DPMS state. The `force' flags
69 forces the server to immediately switch to the DPMS state spec‐
70 ified. The DPMS state can be one of `standby', `suspend',
71 `off', or `on'. When numerical values are given, they set the
72 inactivity period (in units of seconds) before the three modes
73 are activated. The first value given is for the `standby'
74 mode, the second is for the `suspend' mode, and the third is
75 for the `off' mode. Setting these values implicitly enables
76 the DPMS features. A value of zero disables a particular mode.
77 fp= path,...
79 The fp= sets the font path to the entries given in the path
80 argument. The entries are interpreted by the server, not by
81 the client. Typically they are directory names or font server
82 names, but the interpretation is server-dependent.
83 fp default
85 The default argument causes the font path to be reset to the
86 server's default.
87 fp rehash
89 The rehash argument resets the font path to its current value,
90 causing the server to reread the font databases in the current
91 font path. This is generally only used when adding new fonts
92 to a font directory (after running mkfontdir to recreate the
93 font database).
94 -fp or fp-
96 The -fp and fp- options remove elements from the current font
97 path. They must be followed by a comma-separated list of
98 entries.
99 +fp or fp+
101 This +fp and fp+ options prepend and append elements to the
102 current font path, respectively. They must be followed by a
103 comma-separated list of entries.
104 led The led option controls the keyboard LEDs. This controls the
106 turning on or off of one or all of the LEDs. It accepts an
107 optional integer, a preceding dash(-) or an 'on/off' flag. If
108 no parameter or the 'on' flag is given, all LEDs are turned on.
109 If a preceding dash or the flag 'off' is given, all LEDs are
110 turned off. If a value between 1 and 32 is given, that LED
111 will be turned on or off depending on the existence of a pre‐
112 ceding dash. A common LED which can be controlled is the
113 ``Caps Lock'' LED. ``xset led 3'' would turn led #3 on.
114 ``xset -led 3'' would turn it off. The particular LED values
115 may refer to different LEDs on different hardware.
116 m The m option controls the mouse parameters. The parameters for
118 the mouse are `acceleration' and `threshold'. The acceleration
119 can be specified as an integer, or as a simple fraction. The
120 mouse, or whatever pointer the machine is connected to, will go
121 `acceleration' times as fast when it travels more than `thresh‐
122 old' pixels in a short time. This way, the mouse can be used
123 for precise alignment when it is moved slowly, yet it can be
124 set to travel across the screen in a flick of the wrist when
125 desired. One or both parameters for the m option can be omit‐
126 ted, but if only one is given, it will be interpreted as the
127 acceleration. If no parameters or the flag 'default' is used,
128 the system defaults will be set.
129 p The p option controls pixel color values. The parameters are
131 the color map entry number in decimal, and a color specifica‐
132 tion. The root background colors may be changed on some
133 servers by altering the entries for BlackPixel and WhitePixel.
134 Although these are often 0 and 1, they need not be. Also, a
135 server may choose to allocate those colors privately, in which
136 case an error will be generated. The map entry must not be a
137 read-only color, or an error will result.
138 r The r option controls the autorepeat. Invoking with "-r", or
140 "r off", will disable autorepeat, whereas "r", or "r on" will
141 enable autorepeat. Following the "-r" or "r" option with an
142 integer keycode between 0 and 255 will disable or enable
143 autorepeat on that key respectively, but only if it makes sense
144 for the particular keycode. Keycodes below 8 are not typically
145 valid for this command. Example: "xset -r 10" will disable
146 autorepeat for the "1" key on the top row of an IBM PC key‐
147 board.
148 If the server supports the XFree86-Misc extension, or the XKB
150 extension, then a parameter of 'rate' is accepted and should be
151 followed by zero, one or two numeric values. The first speci‐
152 fies the delay before autorepeat starts and the second speci‐
153 fies the repeat rate. In the case that the server supports the
154 XKB extension, the delay is the number of milliseconds before
155 autorepeat starts, and the rate is the number of repeats per
156 second. If the rate or delay is not given, it will be set to
157 the default value.
158 s The s option lets you set the screen saver parameters. This
160 option accepts up to two numerical parameters, a
161 'blank/noblank' flag, an 'expose/noexpose' flag, an 'on/off'
162 flag, an 'activate/reset' flag, or the 'default' flag. If no
163 parameters or the 'default' flag is used, the system will be
164 set to its default screen saver characteristics. The 'on/off'
165 flags simply turn the screen saver functions on or off. The
166 'activate' flag forces activation of screen saver even if the
167 screen saver had been turned off. The 'reset' flag forces
168 deactivation of screen saver if it is active. The 'blank' flag
169 sets the preference to blank the video (if the hardware can do
170 so) rather than display a background pattern, while 'noblank'
171 sets the preference to display a pattern rather than blank the
172 video. The 'expose' flag sets the preference to allow window
173 exposures (the server can freely discard window contents),
174 while 'noexpose' sets the preference to disable screen saver
175 unless the server can regenerate the screens without causing
176 exposure events. The length and period parameters for the
177 screen saver function determines how long the server must be
178 inactive for screen saving to activate, and the period to
179 change the background pattern to avoid burn in. The arguments
180 are specified in seconds. If only one numerical parameter is
181 given, it will be used for the length.
182 q The q option gives you information on the current settings.
184 These settings will be reset to default values when you log out.
186 Note that not all X implementations are guaranteed to honor all of
188 these options.
189
191 X(7), Xserver(1), xmodmap(1), xrdb(1), xsetroot(1)
192
194 Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
195 David Krikorian, MIT Project Athena (X11 version)
196 XFree86-Misc support added by David Dawes and Joe Moss
197 Manpage updates added by Mike A. Harris <mharris@redhat.com>
198X Version 11 xset 1.0.2 XSET(1)